Agree. I arrived in Brussels expecting a lovely European city. Within minutes, my personal safety radar was set on paranoid. We stayed a few blocks from the train station in a Hilton, where all the pilots and flight attendants stayed. After I left, but before my husband did, someone was murdered on the sidewalk between the Hilton and the train station. He saw the puddle of blood in the gutter on the way to the station to go home. Validated the “creeps” I was feeling! Yikes!!
We arrived in that city early Sunday morning before hotel checkin time 2 years ago November. Cold and wet. Went to an ancient cathedral to witness mass. Mostly Blacks in attendance with very few older whites. Desperate people in a dark dark city.